Audio clip
Tom Kilgore
KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Valley Authority, which helped promote electricity as a means of economic growth in the 20th century, was urged Tuesday to shift its focus toward energy conservation in the 21st century.
“I believe we can go from leaders in consumption to leaders in conservation,” Jeffrey Barrie, project director of the Nashville conservation group Kilowatt Ours, told a TVA panel. “Conservation is the quickest, cheapest way to clean up to environment and to meet future load growth.”
Mr. Barrie was among more than two dozen experts and Tennessee Valley citizens who appealed to the TVA board to encourage consumers to limit their power consumption to help meet electricity demands in the region. Environmental and business leaders agreed that reducing consumption, especially during peak demand periods, is cheaper than having to buy or build more power generation as fuel and environmental costs increase.
In its strategic plan adopted last spring, TVA set a goal of cutting demand by 1,200 megawatts — the equivalent power produced by a nuclear reactor — by 2013 through conservation and efficiency measures. But during a 4-hour hearing here Tuesday, several conservation leaders urged TVA to set a more ambitious goal.
“We recommend that TVA set an aggressive planning target for energy efficiency and demand management to offset at least half of anticipated energy and peak load growth,” said Jeffrey Harris of the Alliance for Save Energy.
That would be more than twice TVA’s current goal, but Mr. Harris said other utilities are achieving such targets through consumer education, pricing programs and efficiency incentives.
A study of 31 major utilities by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy during 2005-2006 found TVA ranked 25th in promoting energy savings. Four of the top 10 states in electricity consumption — Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama — are served by TVA, according to the Energy Information Administration.
TVA board members say they want to improve energy efficiency to help reduce the need for costly new power generation by TVA.
“Any kilowatt TVA does not have to generate is the cheapest and greenest way to meet demand,” said TVA director Dennis Bottorff, who led a TVA board panel studying conservation and renewable fuels.
Dr. Joe Hoagland, a TVA vice president, plans to present the TVA board with a draft plan on April 3, outlining goals and plans for more energy conservation and use of renewable fuels.
“The Southeast, in general, has not done a lot with energy efficiency because we haven’t had to because our prices have been low and power has been abundant,” Dr. Hoagland said. “But that’s changing.”
Experts and citizens urged TVA to offer more education and incentive programs aimed at encouraging residential users to cut down on energy waste.
“Energy efficiency includes conservation, which is using less energy; efficiency, which is using energy smarter; and peak shaving, which is avoiding energy use when the demand is high and when power is most expensive to produce,” said Jack Simmons, president of the Chattanooga-based Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. “In addressing energy efficiency, all three components need to be addressed and that will require a complicated, coordinated and concise effort among TVA, power distributors and the end-use customers of electricity.”
